Back from Chicago

Well, it's nice to be back, but it was definitely a good trip. These guys, friends and coworkers, have settled down a bit, and it was actually a productive, balanced, good business trip. Tired now, and back to work Monday, but ready to bounce back. I'll leave the rest of the trip (other than previously described) to the pictures below... there are going to be a lot of pictures and all unedited straight from the D40...


Breakfast at a very local, Polish restaurant before starting the day... Patrick, Arek, Robert, Darek.


Went to the airport to check out the local scene.


There's an entire 5x5 block neighbourhood next to the airport taken over by O'Hare airport... the nieghbourhood is a ghost town, completely empty. The airport bought out all the owners, businesses and houses and are preparing for expansion.


Went to dinner with Arek's family that night, at a Polish restaurant we ate at 5-6 times while we were down there (You will / may recognize it from the first night pic.. at least the colour). The food was / is amazing, and several favourite dishes were had... This is Kristina, Arek's daughter. Bubbly.


Arek with his son Patrick. Patrick is 5 and saved up to purchase his own laptop... Arek and his wife have fantastic, fun kids.


The family, minus his wife, who's just to the left, left out of the pic...


Tatar... mmmm..


At Arek's garage... Last time we went down to Chicago spent entirely too much time there, at least for me.. this time, I brought my bike down and made a conscious choice to take some control and not spend every evening there... I'm not really a car / hanging out in a garage type guy... there was a good balance this time around.


Next day... took off for downtown.. That day I biked over 90 kilometers... from the suburbs of Chicago to in and around downtown. Bike performed great, and the weather was good enough. Such a great way to start to get a feeling for the streets, directions, etc... got lost on the way, but always managed out of it.


Deli, bakery and liqour. And Polish.






A phone number at the Dairy Queen.






I took North Elston downtown, which has a bike lane all the way down from Irving Park Avenue. Added benefit; riding through a Polish community.








So yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to catch the Critical Mass downtown, which met at Daley Park at 5:30 on the Friday... unfortunately meetings went late, and I only got a chance to go downtown around 5... after biking from the suburbs I figured I missed it but still decided to bike around downtown myself.. As I was weaving, I ran into the Critical Mass... such luck!












Reminded me of the Blues Brothers chase...






































On the ride back west...


Meeting up with the others back at the garage.. bike over 90 km and felt good...


Hungarian placeck from the Polish restaurant brought back for me..


Next day, presentation 2 of 3... this one was pretty big, and went well... Each presentation / meeting went better than the previous one.. with practice. This one was recorded for tv and I'll try to get a copy to post here.. maybe in a week or two...










Interview afterward with the school bus district heads and a camera crew... I have no idea what is going on with my hair these days.


On the drive back..






That night we stayed in and watched the F1 race... a sample of our accomodations at Arek's... awesome.




Today, the day we left, we were in the snow.


What bike lane?


Outside our restaurant for one last meal there... delicious. Robert and Darek.






The drive back.

One fleeting update...

Just finished our 2nd of three meetings, and hanging around afterwards in the boardroom cuz yeah, they have wifi. Where we're currently staying we do not, which is on Arek's floor; one of Robert's friends. He's a very nice guy - owns a trucking company and a European Auto Exchange/Importation business here in Chicago.

Anyway, meetings are going really well, and we are starting to get commitments for a few hundred buses here and there... Saturday morning is the big meeting when owners (not just fleet managers) come into town... I'll update the pics I've downloaded to the computer so far... Tonight I'm 'planning' to join the Chicago Critical Mass... I don't normally do these in Toronto, and don't really have much interest in them there, but I can't think of a better way to get introduced to a city. Anyway, I hope we get some time for this.. .asked to be dropped off downtown for a few hours now...

Anyway, we decided to drive through downtown Detroit on our way down, and here are some pics...












The old train station... Rob remembers using it just a few years ago...












Shot.









After taking picture of Robert urinating at the side of the highway, he threatens to dump the bike...




Finally in Chicago, straight to the closest Polish restaurant...


More later as internet is available...

updated with NYT article:

The Last Best Chance for Detroit

On & On & On

You won't hear this one on the radio... just cuz it's 12:29min long. Last song on the Plaskett Three... completely gorgeous album. So many great songs and a must to listening to (as so many things are, I suppose.. ). One and Three are my favourites, with Two a close second... I'll do something more in depth when I get a chance.

On & On & On

I'm off, for now.

Chicago 2.0

But first some shots from 2005 with Karl, Derek and Jeremy.


I swear these guys are just freaky tall!












Definitely a favourite!







Will try to get one more up pre-departure.

Ok, one last one.

New Yorker: MUSIC

Sasha Frere-Jones: Flashing Lights, at Studio B.

Not what you think it is... or, at least not what I thought it was. I got excited for a few seconds... This is actually just bogus.

Presentation finished!

John Mellencamp; still fucking hot.

Fuck procrastination! I own that bitch. Now, maybe just go to bed and get rested for tomorrow's drive... We leave at 3-4 pm, and don't have to be in to work until then... will post more during the day as the house gets cleaned... errr... unless it's sunny out.

Today you ask?.. Not really an eventful day. Drove down to the States and towed up a car though! It was awesome!... Wasn't sure if I could do it by myself, never mind all the paper work, but everything worked out really well... Hitched the fucker up, drove it 250 kms, dealt with customs... I love my job sometimes... just so much variety; not just a head space, but a hands on sort of thing that I don't think a lot of people get.

Also, Sarah posted this on facebook. Looks fantastic... I mean, John Cougar Freakin' Mellencamp is gonna be there! I got a ticket, and will spend the weekend there. Which, is starting to look better and better since the southern US trip looks like it may be failing due to lack of commitment from peps. 1.5 weeks is hard to take off... Anyone else wanna come along? I think it would be great, and I really want to go still... Hopefully someone comes around.

Speaking of which, tomorrow (today - the 24th) is the official release of the Joel Plaskett Three CD. Will try to write something up for it in Chicago... Apparently he spent two weeks in Poland in late 2008.



Ok, one last article touched before hitting the showers and going to bed: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/03/30/090330taco_talk_owen

"The United States didn’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but Canada did, and its experience is suggestive because its economy and per-capita oil consumption are similar to ours. Its Kyoto target is a six-per-cent reduction from 1990 levels. By 2006, however, despite the expenditure of billions of dollars on climate initiatives, its greenhouse-gas output had increased to a hundred and twenty-two per cent of the goal, and the environment minister described the Kyoto target as “impossible.”
...
Electric cars are not the panacea they are sometimes claimed to be, not only because the electricity they run on has to be generated somewhere but also because making driving less expensive does nothing to discourage people from sprawling across the face of the planet, promoting forms of development that are inherently and catastrophically wasteful."

Good article, written nicely, but just restating the obvious really and nothing shattering. Another reason I like propane and hate that it gets such a bad wrap from the media... It's the major by-product of gasoline production, and 9/10ths of it is simply released into the air (non-toxic fuel) because there isn't enough demand for it.

Now, obviously it isn't the be all and end all, but it can be (and is across Europe) a wonderful stepping stone. Purolator is now driving on a lot of propane, and that's where it generally has it's biggest impact; with larger trucks that haul all day. Sure you can scream at the SUV that burns 24 L/100km, but these larger transport trucks haul at 30+ L/100 km virtually 14 hours of the day! Nevermind the number of these trucks on the road daily. And furthermore, it saves money! That's where a reduction in emissions is really at.

So, yeah, coming full circle I suppose, the job is great, just need better focus on how to get this done. Hence Chicago.



There, the State government pays 80% of the conversion costs, AND rebates you 50 cents per gallon of propane purchased! It doesn't matter if you buy in bulk or at the pump either, and it's 100% of the propane you purchase as well. The scenario we're currently looking at down there is this; A conversion will cost an individual/company approximately $1000 after all taxes and rebates (depending who's buying ;).

Once driving on propane, if buying in bulk (for the School Bus Districts, which we're visiting this is totally viable), they're paying approximately 35 CENTS A GALLON for fuel (gasoline is currently around $2/gal.; diesel even more). Unbelievable, but true. Furthermore, the government rebates up to $3000 on a tank installation for bulk propane storage (typical costs run around $5000). Astronomical savings when looking just 500 buses. Never mind the pollution and reduction in direct exposure to children! Anyway, a cost benefit analysis I made up which hopefully isn't too word heavy/think?

Wow, ok.. time for a shower and sleep. Ending that tangent suddenly got my eyes heavy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century. His teachings directly influenced the growing New Thought movement of the mid 1800s.

Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, Nature. As a result of this ground breaking work he gave a speech entitled The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. considered to be America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence".^[1]

Considered one of the great orators of the time, Emerson's enthusiasm and respect for his audience enraptured crowds. His support for abolitionism late in life created controversy, and at times he was subject to abuse from crowds while speaking on the topic, however this was not always the case. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was "the infinitude of the private man."^[2]

Two more great things:

1) No more copyrights - all books, letters, poems, journals are free and online!
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Ralph%20Waldo%20Emerson%20AND%20collection%3Aamericana

2) The man was a quote machine... Definitely a great linguist/orator, as mentioned in a few of the links above and shown in some cheap internet links below.
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/ralph_waldo_emerson/
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Here are just some of my favourites... And yeah, I know, cheesy high school shit with the quotes and all, but whateves.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

“What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us."

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."

"We must be our own before we can be another's."

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

“As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.”

"He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear."

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."

...off to ballhockey! Tonight's gonna be a long night... need to finish a presentation before heading to Chicago tomorrow.. but I'm sure I'll procrastinate, read, and write here some...